Yoga Positions for Birth, 2008
Digital Print Installation
Variable dimensions

Hermione Wiltshire shadowed doula and Yoga Birth teacher, Kathleen Beegan, in her home practice in Streatham, London. The observations of these classes produced a series of photographs arrived at through collaboration between both practitioners. Wiltshire’s interest in Yoga, in particular teaching the student to take their attention inside the body is celebrated in Kathleen’s classes. Kathleen teaches pregnant women to identify various internal areas and sensations in preparation for labour. Wiltshire was inspired to produce photographs of Kathleen’s pregnant students in positions she teaches in her classes. In particular she is trying to articulate the subtle physical sensations that take place inside their bodies as Kathleen herself was teaching them. Hermione is interested in communicating a stillness and concentration organised by the students’ breathing. Also to show the “powerful graphic...and energetic relationship between ...the mouth and the perineum.”

Therese in Ecstatic Childbirth, 2008
Digital Print
65 x 50 cm

For this work Hermione Wiltshire spent time observing the preparation of expectant parents at birth workshops given by the President of the National Childbirth Trust, Gail Werkmeister. Here Hermione witnessed the anxieties and hopes of parents-to-be. She became very aware of the prevalence of negative images of birth. She says, “My work often reflects my interest in images that are politically charged. I am particularly interested in the cultural anxiety around images of crowning. [This] moment … is seen as shocking, stimulating the same response as a pornographic image.” Such images of crowning were not used in Gail’s workshops because she believed their impact was distressing. At Matrix, a Birth Rites forum, Gail asked the audience, “should I traumatise them?” Instances like these have been occurring since the beginning of the project, where those involved reassess how they work and why. In response to this research Hermione chose to present what she believes is the answer to Gail’s dilemma; she presents Ina May Gaskin’s image of a woman crowning in ecstatic childbirth.